Peoples' Self-Help Housing

Peoples' Self-Help Housing

For Immediate Release

Press Contact:
Chris Davis
805-687-3322

Children Teach Others About "Recycling through Art" as Part of Earth Day Festival

Santa Barbara, CA, April 16, 2004—You can teach a man to fish but can you teach him how to recycle? A group of kids at this year's Earth Day Festival sure hope so. Some 80 children from three different Peoples' Self-Help Housing affordable housing complexes, including Milagra de Ladera Apartments, Carpinteria Camper Park, and Dahlia Court Apartments, have worked for nearly 7 weeks with representatives from Art from Scrap to create art pieces from recycled and natural materials. Over 100 pieces will be on display this Sunday, 10 am-5:30 pm at the County Courthouse, Sunken Gardens for this year's annual Earth Day Festival.

In addition to teaching others about creating art from recycled material, these kids want to raise awareness about the importance of recycling and reusing material locally and globally.

"If we can just make one person think about recycling than that would be great," said Waritza, an 11 year-old resident of Milagra de Ladera Apartments.

Art from Scrap Program Coordinator Marcelino Jimenez agrees, "Our real goal was to get the kids to think about recycling in a fun a creative way and to get that message to the rest of their family and to the community."

What: Earth Day Festival, Kid's "Art from Scrap" Display

Who: Over 70 resident kids and family members from Peoples' Self-Help Housing, Art from Scrap representatives, and other Festival participants

When: Sunday, April 18, 10 am-5 pm

Where: Santa Barbara Courthouse, Sunken Gardens

Why: To celebrate Earth Day and raise environmental awareness

Art from Scrap began in 1990 as a volunteer effort of a group of Santa Barbara parents who recognized the value of unwanted materials. The concept was to provide art supplies to students while promoting the practices of reduce, reuse, and recycle. With support and assistance from the Santa Barbara County Education Office, the City of Santa Barbara, the County of Santa Barbara, and the community, AFS has developed into a comprehensive art and reuse program serving over 20,000 people each year with a variety of services.

Peoples' Self-Help Housing is an award winning non-profit organization with over 30 years of experience developing housing for low-income and special needs households on California's Central Coast (Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura Counties). PSHH also provides assistance in the design and implementation of community development programs for numerous cities, counties and community groups.